BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
It’s hard not to think of Breguet when you think of the tourbillon which, if you’re me, is pretty much every day. Is there a single waking moment where I’m not thinking about watches? Is it a problem if the answer to that question is a no? Anyway, as I was saying, it’s hard not to think of Breguet when you think of the tourbillon; they did invent it, after all and have been featuring it in their collection more or less since their revival in the 1980s-1990s. In 2017, they showed their newest tourbillon watch which was called the Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante ref. 5887PT/Y2/9WV, which came with a blue strap and dial paired with a solid white gold case.
They’ve added some other versions along the way, and now they’re releasing a new variant.
The Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante signalled the first step into redesigning the Marine collection which had been the same for a long time. While I lament the loss of the Marine ref.5817 with its big date, I wasn’t so fond of the more complex Marine watches as they got a little gaudy for my tastes. The chief among those old models was the ref.5837 tourbillon chronograph, although that’s probably a really good deal on the pre-owned market now. Anyway, the old 5837 was replaced by the Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante ref. 5887 as the new halo model of the range, with the entire Marine lineup receiving a redesign in the following years. Although, oddly, Breguet’s website currently lists the ref.5839, a diamond-set version of the 5837, as a current watch.
Like the 5887, this new variant features a case measuring 43.9mm x 11.8mm, and it’s now made of solid 950 platinum. It still features unique touches, such as the lug design and the fluted caseband, a distinctive feature of nearly all Breguet watches. Despite the apparent delicacy of it all, the watch has 100m of water resistance, so it isn’t necessarily something you’d need to take off before going for a swim. I still advise that you do, though, to avoid scratches and knocks. It even has a rubber strap, too.
The most unique part of this watch is its dial, which is offset within the case and most definitely a Breguet design. The dial is black with wave-motif guilloché, with a silver ring for the markers and silvery outlines for the displays. The dial’s simplistic appearance belies its complexity. As well as the tourbillon, which is visible through the dial, the watch also features a perpetual calendar which is displayed through the windows (with the year counter next to the month name) and via the retrograde hand with the anchor at its end, which points to the date. There’s even a power reserve indicator slotted at 8.30.
This watch also has a particularly rare feature: an equation of time display. The purpose of the equation of time function is to display the difference between true solar time and mean solar time. Although we measure the days as exactly 24 hours (mean solar time) so that our technology works properly, the actual day length varies throughout the year (true solar time), with only four days being precisely 24 hours long. This is caused by the Earth’s orbit around the Sun being slightly elliptical. The hand with the fluted gold circle at the end displays the true solar time and will usually be up to 15 minutes behind or in front of the regular minutes hand (that has lume applied to it), which displays the mean solar time. The kidney-shaped cam over the tourbillon has a feeler arm which moves the true solar time hand accordingly. It’s not a necessary function; in fact, it has little value other than being a cool thing you don’t often see in mechanical watches as they can usually only show mean solar time.
All of this complexity comes courtesy of the self-winding calibre 581DPE. A work of art in both the traditional and the mechanical sense, this movement has 563 components including silicone parts in the escapement to help accuracy and resist magnetism. A single barrel powers the watch for up to 80 hours, and the escapement set within the titanium tourbillon cage beats at 4Hz. More than this, though, is the exquisite guilloché decoration which adorns the movement. The peripheral winding rotor is made of 950 platinum and is hand-engraved with a wave motif. The mainspring barrel has a compass engraved on it, and the movement plates feature a hand-engraved depiction of the Royal Louis, a French Royal Navy warship commissioned in 1752.
This watch represents Breguet at the highest level. It’s funny, every time we cover a complex Breguet, like the recent Classique models, we get comments opining that Breguet should be considered in the “holy trinity” of watchmakers. Of course, it wouldn’t be a trinity if a fourth player entered the game, and yet Breguet can more than match the others when they want to.
The Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante also has a price tag to match the watches from those other brands, one of these will set you back €292,800 incl. VAT and I bet they won’t be making them in a hurry.
